Do You Say “Just” and “Sorry” Too Much in Emails?

There’s a Gmail tool to tell you

Raise your hand if coming across as likable to your work colleagues is important to you. Yep, us too. But it turns out, what we think is pleasant and polite could be misconstrued as self-doubting and timid.

That’s according to Just Not Sorry, a new, free Gmail plugin that calls you out when you use weak words and phrases like “sorry” and “Does that make sense?” and “I just thought.”

First, download Just Not Sorry to your browser. Then, type an email as you normally would. Any potentially “dangerous” words will be underlined as if they’re typos. When you hover over an underlined word, you’ll get an explanation as to why it was flagged. These range from helpful advice (“‘Just’ demeans what you have to say. ‘Just’ shrinks your power.”) to silly quotes (“Do or do not. There is no try.” -- Yoda).